A Sinner's World
by Shmendrick
Summary: A series of drabbles on the crew of Serenity and their lives
1. Human Minds

So few people understand the human mind properly, so lamentably few. They try to control it, to twist it and bend it but don't know how to do it correctly without breaking the mind. They understand the brain but not the mind, they haven't the finesse to grasp the nuances, the parts of the mind we look away from and so they ignore them. They can change the brain but changing the mind is so much harder. They try and make it obey them but they can't do it without damaging the mind and what is damaged can't always be fixed. Fortunately the ones operating on River were slightly more able at this than the others but they still weren't good enough, they still broke her brain, not that I could have done any better but hopefully I would not have done at all. They took the Hippocratic Oath same as I did and they should never have broken it.


	2. The Past

The past is a funny thing, the more you think about it the more it changes. You think about it and, as you think about it, it changes. You make it shinier; you change it to make you look better. Memories ain't reliable, you don't need a fancy doctor like Simon to tell you that. Even me and Zoe disagree about what happened in the war sometimes, just over little things, never over the serious things like the battles but over the small stories. We disagree over the stories we tell to entertain the crew and even though they aren't important it worries me sometimes. Everyone thinks that forgetting is a sign of age and I don't really want to get old, I'd rather keep flying my Serenity and stay in the black.

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Thank you to The Frisky Firelily for being the first to review. Hope you enjoy this next drabble, I'm going to try to up-date once a day or every other day hopefully.


	3. Red Shoes

I am the girl with the red shoes. I have to keep dancing, dancing stops the memories, the memories cause the pain. Pain isn't a good thing, pain is a response to something bad. Bottling things up inside causes pain but Simon likes finding things out. Balance my hurt against giving Simon something to think about out here in the black. Dance is a way of telling a story even if only I know the story, one way to not bottle things up. They'll all know in the end but they need something to wonder about. I know what the Academy did but they can wonder for as long as they want to until Simon finds out.


	4. Not Everything is Shiny

Captain's not always right no matter what Zoe says. He loves Serenity in his own way but he's never for buying her the parts she rightly needs. He just tells me to make it shiny again, reckoning on his claim I'm the best mechanic floating. He thinks I can work miracles but it ain't always possible. I'm no Simon Tam, top three percent and all, to fix anything that comes my way but I do my best. He don't look my way, used to all them fancified core girls like the ones on Persephone, all flounces and pouts, knowing they're beautiful and equal of any man out there. I'm not them, clever and witty, I'm just little ol'Kaylee with her rim manners and her grubbiness.

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**Well the idea of updating every other day failed rather epicly but here be a little offering to make it up to anyone still reading. I did my best to catch Kaylee's way of speaking but I'm not too sure if I managed that so any reviews would be greatly appreciated my dears. Thank you very muchly. **


	5. Unrequited

I ain't used to this. To wanting something I can't have so bad. I keep watching her and it's getting on my nerves. She's a little moonbrain and she ain't my type. She's skinny and small and a whole bushel of other things that ain't what I like, she uses more words in a sentence than I rightly know and she don't need no protecting. I like my girls with a bit of softness, bit of womanliness. Bit like that thing the Captain picked up before she went wacko on us and tried to kill us all. I don't know what to do, doc'd pitch four types of fit if he knew I was making eyes at his mei mei and I'd get a lecture in them special hells Book were telling the captain bout.

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**I do occasionally 'ship this pairing and I think a bit of unrequited love is very cute on Jayne's part. **


	6. Factory

The Alliance instils certain values in a person, brings 'em up the proper way as they say. It makes them "correct" as the good doctor would say, he doesn't approve of us and our little jobs. He sits there with a frown on his face and glowers as he stitches bullet wounds back together. Eventually he'll come round, he's relaxed a lot more already. He laughs now and doesn't look so gorram nervous walking past airlocks all the time. One day he'll learn to trust us, we don't like the Alliance any more than he does. We ain't gonna betray him he's too interesting to tease. One day he'll be confident enough to joke back and then we'll have some fun.

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** Tiny bit of slash if you squint carefully between the good doctor and our favourite captain. This came from the prompt "_Factory". _**


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